So, you’re wanting to ditch your landlord or move into your next home, but how do you decide whether to build a new home or buy pre-owned?
Here are the most important things to consider when deciding whether to purchase a brand-new home or a pre-owned home.
New Build vs. Pre-Owned
If having a home with lots of character and charm is on the top of your list, then perhaps buying a pre-owned home is right for you. But for today’s lifestyle, a lot of homebuyers need something that is going to be functional for their busy lives such as large front entries with extra closet space or a walk-thru pantry. In new build homes, floorplans are a lot more open concept compared to older homes that tend to be more closed off.
Another benefit of building a new home is having more bathroom space with dual vanities, soaker tubs, and even tiled showers with benches that can make your ensuite feel like your own personal spa.
Designing Your New Home
When purchasing an older home, the idea of renovating can be extremely daunting for some people. Attempting to make the home cohesive and up to date takes a lot of time, work, and effort. When building new construction homes, you will have a lot of guidance in choosing your home’s paint colour, cabinetry, floors, tile, lighting, and so much more. Our design center, designQ, has everything in one convenient place, and the interior designers can also customize the layout of your home which will make it even more functional for your specific needs.
The Confidence of Buying New
There are a lot of unknowns when buying pre-owned homes. Often times the home maintenance has not been kept up properly which can raise a lot of concerns and questions. With new build homes, you often have walk-throughs at different stages during the construction so you can actually see what your house looks like behind the walls, and you can feel more confident that everything is done properly and to the current building codes.
One of the biggest benefits of buying a brand-new home is not only is it going to be extremely beautiful, but it’s also going to be extremely energy efficient with triple pane windows, a tankless on-demand hot water system, LED lighting, and a high efficient furnace.
New Neighbourhoods
Another important aspect to consider beyond the interior of the home is what neighbourhood you’re going to live in. New construction homes are built in master planned communities that are very diverse and with different styles of homes being built within one neighbourhood. These communities have many different amenities close by such as schools, parks, walking trails, ponds, shopping, and recreation facilities that help improve the lifestyle and well-being of the people living in the neighbourhood. We build in over 30+ communities in Edmonton and surrounding areas so there’s no shortage of location options.
Price
There are a lot of things that can factor into the price of a home. What’s great about a new construction home is you’re not going to be stuck in the middle of a bidding war and possibly end up paying more than what a home is worth – you know the price of your home from the very beginning with a new build.
The price a new build home also factors into the price of the lot you choose to build on. If having a larger lot is important to you then you can choose to spend more money on that, and if the lot size isn’t as important to you then you can choose a smaller lot and get more value for your money and spend it on features inside the house. There are so many things that you can control with the price when you’re building a new construction home. Another thing to think about is with a pre-owned home you might now get a finished basement but if you’re going to be building a new home you can always consider finishing your basement. Finishing your basement will make things much easier in the future so that you won’t have to come up with the money to finish your basement yourself, the basement will be included in your monthly payments.
There is so much flexibility when you’re building a new home and having an income suite could be another reason to finish your basement. Income suites are great investments for income properties and are also great for multi-generational families. The benefits of building an income suite with a home builder is that it will be built up to code and it will be legally rentable so in terms of your home insurance, you know that you will be covered.